


a man ill-met at the Met

by theladyscribe



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Humor, Meet-Cute, Museums
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-22
Updated: 2013-11-22
Packaged: 2018-01-02 07:27:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1054095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theladyscribe/pseuds/theladyscribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve ignores her at first, because he tunes everyone out when he's doing an art crawl through a gallery. But when the girl with the bright red scarf passes by the third time, walking between him and the Hellenistic bronze he's sketching, he finally decides to say something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a man ill-met at the Met

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nessismore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nessismore/gifts).



_rising from the grates. Sing, muse! of a man  
ill-met at the Met. A man on his lunch break_

*

Steve ignores her at first, because he tunes everyone out when he's doing an art crawl through a gallery. But when the girl with the bright red scarf passes by the third time, walking between him and the Hellenistic bronze he's sketching, he finally decides to say something.

"Excuse me, but are you lost?" he asks.

She startles and turns to look at him. "Sorry?"

"Are you lost?" he repeats.

"No," she answers, frowning like she isn't sure why he'd ask.

"It's just -- you've been through here three times in the last twenty minutes."

Her mouth twists in amusement or maybe in annoyance. "You've been counting?"

"No," he says petulantly. Steve gestures at the statuette. "It's just every time I go to work on her face, you're in the way."

The girl looks at the statuette and turns back to Steve. "Can I see it?"

"See what?"

She rolls her eyes at him. "Your drawing. Duh."

Steve tries to say no, she cannot, but she's already standing over him, peering down at the sketchbook resting on his knee. He looks down at it, too, because the alternative is to look at her chest.

"You're good," she tells him, and he shrugs. Steve will admit he's not bad, but he knows he'll never be Da Vinci either.

"Haven't got her face right yet. It's the veil." He frowns at his sketch, willing the eyes to fix themselves where they're off-kilter.

"No, really." She sits on the bench beside him, a little too close for his comfort, her arm bumping his as she motions between his drawing and the statuette. "That statue almost looks like she's alive, the way her foot is raised and her elbows draw the fabric of her cloak taut. You're getting the same effect, just in two dimensions instead of three."

Steve can feel his cheeks flush under her praise. "Thanks," he murmurs.

"Of course. I'm Darcy, by the way." She sticks her hand out, practically smacking him in the chest.

He takes her hand. "Steve Rogers."

She pauses mid-shake and cocks her head. "Like, _Steve Rogers_ , Steve Rogers?"

It's not uncommon for people to recognize him, but they usually jump straight to _Captain America_ , forgetting that he's an actual person under the suit. For a split second, he considers lying, but instead he nods. "Guilty as charged."

Darcy laughs, which gets them a glare from the docent at the other end of the gallery. "Wait 'til I tell Jane!" she exclaims, and Steve immediately wishes he could take back his admission.

"I'd really rather you didn't," he says, pulling away and planning his escape before the place is crawling with adoring fans.

Darcy frowns at him, consternation clear on her face. "You don't like Jane?"

"I -- what?"

"Jane Foster? Dr. Foster? Thor's girlfriend?"

"You know Thor?"

Darcy rolls her eyes at him again. "Duh. I'm Jane's intern. I tasered the guy."

Steve raises his eyebrows in surprise. "You're _that_ Darcy?"

She preens. "Guilty as charged."

He narrows his eyes. "I've heard about you."

"Only good things I hope."

"Thor asked me to autograph a picture for you."

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," she says quickly, but the flush of her cheeks gives her away.

"You knew who I was," he accuses, "before you even sat down. That's the reason you kept walking by, isn't it? You were stalking me."

Darcy turns away and hunches her shoulders, but Steve sees the flush spread down her neck and to her ears. She twists her hands in her lap, playing with the ends of her scarf, and he immediately feels like a heel for embarrassing her.

"Sorry," he says, "that was uncalled for."

She doesn't answer, but she doesn't get up and walk away, either, so he sits and stares at the statuette, trying to sort out the look on its face. He scribbles a couple sets of eyes on the side, but they're either vacant and lifeless or slightly crossed.

"I wasn't sure it was you at first," Darcy says after a long and uncomfortable silence.

"Huh?"

She's looking at him out of the corner of her eye. She's no longer red-faced, just a hint of pink on her cheeks that could be make-up.

"Why I kept walking past. I wasn't sure it was you. And I didn't want to have an awkward conversation with the hot guy in the Hellenistic gallery only to find out he _wasn't_ Captain America. So I was trying to take your picture to send it to Jane and confirm without embarrassing myself." She lets out a laugh with a slightly hysterical edge to it. "Best-laid plans go oft awry."

"Gang aft agley," Steve answers automatically.

She turns to look at him, question obvious in the quirk of her eyebrows.

"It's 'The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley.' Everyone gets it wrong."

Darcy grins, amused. "I suppose they do."

He's pretty certain there's a little mockery in her smile, but he probably deserves it. Tony always tells him not to take offense that people don't have to memorize literature anymore and that not everyone finds it to be a loss.

They settle into silence again, this time a little more comfortably. Steve returns to his sketch, but he can feel Darcy's eyes on him. He knows she called him "hot," but he gets that a lot these days and it mostly makes him feel squirrelly. He can feel his ears heat up while she considers him, so he tries to ignore her, to focus on the dancing statuette.

"Have you read Steinbeck?" Darcy asks suddenly.

"Of course. _Grapes of Wrath_ came out just before the War." He doesn't look up as he says it, pencil still scratching on paper.

" _Grapes_ is good, but _Travels With Charley_ is my favorite," she says.

Steve glances at her. "I don't know that one."

"Oh. Right. I think it was published in the sixties. It's non-fiction. Steinbeck went on a road trip with his dog." She hesitates. "You can borrow my copy if you want. You should read _East of Eden_ , too. It came out sometime...after." She waves a hand, but Steve isn't sure if she means _after the War_ or _after he went under_. He supposes it doesn't really matter, since they're mostly the same.

"I'd like that," he tells her. "Do you come to the Tower?"

"If I were ever at the Tower, do you think I'd be stalking you in a museum?"

He lets out a small chuckle. "No, I guess not."

"Here, let me -- I can give you the address to Jane's lab, and you can stop by sometime."

He hands her his pencil and sketchpad, and she scrawls an address along the bottom of the page.

"I've got class at NYU tomorrow, but I'll be there all day on Thursday." She stands to go, but on impulse, Steve stops her.

"Wait. Would you -- would you like to get some coffee?"

She blinks and the slight flush is back in her cheeks. "I'd love to."

Steve rises, packing away his art supplies. The statuette can wait.

**Author's Note:**

> The [statuette](http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/255408?img=0) Steve is sketching is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Title is from [Robinson Walks Museum Mile](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/245086) by Kathleen Rooney. The poem referenced in the story is "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns.
> 
> Many thanks to **artemisia-at-salamis** for the lightning-fast beta.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead (The Bridge is Love Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1157903) by [igrockspock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrockspock/pseuds/igrockspock)




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